Using the DEPTH model to facilitate learning in an integrated Science and Technology pre-service primary teacher course

The paper describes the development of an Integrated Curriculum Science and Technology subject offering as part of the Bachelor of Education (Teaching) degree for primary pre-service teachers at Massey University in New Zealand. The paper discusses some of the difficulties and concerns which arise when pursuing this type of endeavour. This paper also highlights differences from earlier studies carried out at the same institution using the DEPTH framework. The concept of teaching/learning via a project is not new. The innovation here is the integration of Problem Based Learning (PBL) and the DEPTH approach. The previous study (O’Sullivan, Proceedings of Second International Primary Design and Technology Conference—Quality in the Making, Birmingham, 2001) highlighted the usefulness of the DEPTH framework as an evaluation tool to focus students’ responses to critiquing school teaching practice experience and also informing their own personal constructs. This study again found the framework useful but as a diagnostic tool.     

DEPTH–developing professional thinking for Finnish technology teachers

The Finnish case contributing to the international DEPTH study was carried out within the Technology Education NOW! project at the University of Oulu. Nineteen project teachers participated in the study. The recent revision of the Finnish Basic Education Curriculum with the introduction of the cross-curricular theme “Humans and Technology” provided the contextual framework for the study. The graphic tool called the ‘DEPTH tool’ was introduced to the teachers to help and support them in their professional thinking of their technology teaching in this period of transition. Qualitative research methods were employed in the study. The teachers’ responses to the study indicate that it was appropriate and helped them to make sense of the situation. The DEPTH tool appeared to work well with most of the teachers. Even though some of the teachers used the tool to present a list of activities they have carried out in their technology teaching, most of them understood that they could use the tool in a deeper way to enhance their professional reflection. Five categories of teachers emerged from the data. The categories indicate different aspects and levels of teachers’ professional reflection, especially in relation to curriculum revision and the cross-curricular theme Humans and Technology. Interestingly, some of the teachers who showed a thoughtful level of reflection did not pay very much attention to the revised curriculum.     

Teachers learning about technology and technology education: Insights from a professional development experience

The introduction of technology education in primary and secondary schools during the past 10–15 years around the world has presented a number of difficulties for teachers, primarily related to their coming to understand the phenomenon of technology and to conceptualise the technology learning area in line with national frameworks. This paper reports on a professional development experience that aimed to assist a small group of primary school teachers to develop their understandings of technology and technology education. A theoretical model framed a series of professional development interactions between the researchers and the experienced teachers who were new to teaching technology. Data sources included teacher interviews, video recordings of the activities, teacher made models, and extracts from their reflective journals. The study presented some insights into how professional development experiences for teachers new to technology could be organised and implemented to best support their developing technology practices and understandings.     

Middle-school teachers’ understanding and teaching of the engineering design process: a look at subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge

This paper reports on research investigating six middle school teachers without engineering degrees as they taught an engineering unit on the engineering design process. Videotaped classroom sessions and teacher interviews were analyzed to understand the subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge the teachers used and developed as they introduced the eight steps of the engineering design process (from content standards for the state of Massachusetts, USA). The teachers demonstrated wide-ranging knowledge of the engineering design process, and this paper describes two of the steps the teachers showed a more sophisticated understanding—constructing a prototype and redesigning. Examples from the teachers illustrate strengths that can be built upon as well as some areas for further development.     

How school context and personal factors relate to teachers’ attitudes toward teaching integrated STEM

Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is an emerging approach to improve students’ achievement and interest in STEM disciplines. However, the implementation of integrated STEM education depends strongly on teachers’ competence, which entails, among others, teachers’ attitudes. Nonetheless, not much is known about the factors that influence teachers’ attitudes toward teaching integrated STEM. Therefore this paper uses a survey method to get insight into the relationship between three groups of variables and teachers’ attitudes toward teaching integrated STEM: teacher background characteristics, personal attitudes and school context variables. The results of the multiple regression analyses reveal three variables that are positively linked with teachers’ attitudes: professional development, personal relevance of science and social context. Moreover two variables show a negative correlation: having more than 20 years of teaching experience and experience in mathematics. The results of this study provide valuable information about factors related to teachers’ attitudes toward teaching integrated STEM. Moreover, these results can be deployed by school administrators to guide them when implementing integrated STEM education in their school.     

Design and technology productions among middle school students: an Indian experience

The focus of this paper is students’ design productions as they engaged in designing and making a windmill model to lift a given weight. This work is part of a project on the development of design and technology (D&;T) education units and its trials among Indian middle school students (Grade 6, age 11–14 years) in different socio-cultural settings. Since D&;T is not a part of the Indian school curriculum, the students had no earlier experience of design. Our trials included an exploratory phase followed by groups of students producing technical drawings and a plan for the making action (procedural map) before engaging in making the windmill model. The paper presents findings from a qualitative analysis of urban and rural students’ pencil and paper productions, complemented by observations from video recordings of the collaborative engagement of these naïve designers. Students used graphical symbols, analogical, spatial and functional reasoning in their design activities. Choice of materials and tools, the nature of exploratory sketches, variety in design and attentions to issues of stability showed differences between the urban and rural groups. Some potential implications of D&;T units for classroom learning have also been discussed.     

Recognising Uniqueness in the Technology Key Learning Area: The Search for Meaning

The purpose of this study was to investigate areas of significance which were related to the understanding of technology and technology education, identified by teachers introducing the key learning area, technology, into their primary school classrooms for the first time. Working from Australia's national document on technology education, A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994), two teachers wrestled with how to fit this new curriculum area into their current classroom programs, their understandings of technology as a phenomenon and with their beliefs about teaching and learning in general. The study showed that the teachers made sense of technology education as it related to, from their perspectives, ideas about and aspects of primary school classrooms with which they felt comfortable. Implications for professional development include the need to acknowledge and value the prior experiences and understandings of primary teachers. The challenge for teachers in implementing technology education is gaining a conceptualisation of the learning area, which in some respects, is very like other more familiar learning areas in the primary curriculum, but in many other respects, unique. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Towards a Model for Teacher Development in Technology Education: From Research to Practice

This paper reports on a series of interventions in New Zealand schools in order to enhance the teaching of, and learning in, technology as a new learning area. It details the way in which researchers worked with teachers to introduce technological activities into the classroom, the teachers' reflections on this process and the subsequent development of activities. These activities were undertaken in 14 classrooms (8 primary and 6 secondary).The research took into account past experiences of school-based teacher development and recommendations related to teacher change. Extensive use was made of case-studies from earlier phases of the research, and of the draft technology curriculum, in order to develop teachers' concepts of technology and technology education. Teachers then worked from these concepts to develop technological activities and classroom strategies. The paper also introduces a model that outlines factors contributing to school technological literacy, and suggests that teacher development models will need to allow teachers to develop technological knowledge and an understanding of technological practice, as well as concepts of technology and technology education, if they are to become effective in the teaching of technology.     

DEPTH2: developing professional knowledge in D&T secondary initial teacher education

There are various aspects to teachers’ professional knowledge, some such as subject knowledge are more easy to articulate than others, for example knowing how to construct a scheme of work. Student teachers need to be able to understand the various aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge in order to be able to help themselves reflect on and develop these various aspects. This research builds on earlier work conducted with design and technology colleagues in a number of different countries and teacher training institutions (see Banks et al., International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 14, 141–157, 2004). Leach and Banks, together with other colleagues, developed a visual tool for discussing the aspects of professional knowledge that student teachers are required to develop and this formed the basis of this research (Leach and Banks, Investigating the developing ‘Teacher Professional Knowledge’ of student teachers, 1996). The research was carried out with a cohort of 1-year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students on a conventional face-to-face programme. There were 11 in the group with six male and five female and the majority were aged under 25; this is atypical of this course both for gender and age, but this constituted the 2004–2005 intake. There were three data collection points: September 2004, on their first day of their course; January 2005 following their first school placement and June 2005 at the end of the course. The findings indicate the students’ development across the PGCE course in each of the areas relating to knowledge of subject, pedagogy and school. In each area there is a growth in their knowledge and a development in the complexity of their understanding. The students’ knowledge developed from a generalised understanding to a more specific and sophisticated one. It is hoped to be able to continue this research during the induction year of each successful student.     

“以人为本”的高校教学管理体制研究

我国传统的教学管理体制长期受计划经济的影响而形成了所谓的"行政管理模式",其抑制了教师和学生的创新性和主动性,严重阻碍了高校的发展。随着我国加入WTO,高等教育已被赋予了"教育服务"的内涵",以人为本"的教学管理体制为高校管理者提供了一种新型办学思路,为学校革去旧的封闭式的管理模式,建立一套新的开放型的管理模式,为管理职能从"管理型"向"服务型"转变提供了新的方向,从而对提高学校的管理效益、增强学校凝聚力、实现学校的整体目标具有不可忽视的作用。     

Assessing changes in teachers’ attitudes toward interdisciplinary STEM teaching

Integrating engineering and technology concepts into K-12 science and math curricula through engineering design project-based learning has been found to increase students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), however preparing teachers to shift to interdisciplinary teaching remains a significant challenge. Primarily teachers need to develop both skills and attitudes toward interdisciplinary teaching. In doing so, professional development (PD) is considered a key component in helping teachers through this transformation process. In an educational environment of accountability, measuring the effects of PD programs on teacher behaviors and capacity is essential but often elusive. The current study describes the change in attitudes to interdisciplinary teaching of 29 self-selected middle and high school teachers who participated a PD workshop and in delivering a 12–15 week interdisciplinary teaching and design problem unit that spanned multiple STEM subjects. This quasi-experimental pilot study implemented a single group pretest–posttest design using survey methods to collect data from the participants at two intervals; at the time of the PD workshop and at the completion of the teaching unit that emphasized a long-term engineering design problem. The goals of this research are to (1) assess the changes in attitudes to interdisciplinary teaching, attitudes to teamwork, teaching satisfaction, and resistance to change, (2) explore relationships among these changes, (3) and describe the variation in these changes across teachers’ gender, school level, discipline taught, and education level.     

Concept Mapping as a Means of Evaluating Primary School Technology Programmes

Concept mapping provides a means for teachers and pupils to represent their understanding of an area of knowledge. It has been used as a planning tool by teachers to identify a framework of specific concepts and their propositions within a topic, as an assessment tool and as a means of collaborative sharing of knowledge. Information from two primary schools would also suggest that it can be used as a means of evaluating a school programme of primary technology. Research into people's perceptions and attitudes to technology indicated that there were a number of concepts and propositions associated with this field of study. A variety of groups of people including primary children were asked to describe what they understood to be technology and this information was constructed into a concept map format. The two schools described in the study had different programmes to deliver technology within the curriculum area of environmental studies. The first school had a planned programme of technology which was taught by the head teacher of the school. The second school had technology taught by class teachers, running as a thread throughout the environmental studies programme. In the first case the children knew when they were engaged in a technological task whereas in the second case the technology was implicit and the children were not necessarily aware of any specific subject area. The children's perceptions of technology and their attitudes towards it were analysed with reference to the constructed concept map. In the school where there were specifically programmed technological tasks, the children indicated that their understandings of technology were focused towards the design process; they identified technology as designing, making, problem solving and generating ideas. In relation to the Scottish curriculum their knowledge was concentrated in the area of the outcome entitled 'Understanding and Using the Design Process'. Children in the second school indicated that their understanding of technology was related to objects including computers and new inventions. This demonstrated that their ideas were mostly linked to the outcome entitled 'Understanding and Using Technology in Society'. It can be argued that in order to have a comprehensive understanding of technology the children should have knowledge and understanding of both outcomes. In the light of the results the head teachers of the respective schools decided to look more closely at their programmes in order to find out what modifications might be made. The head teacher of the first school decided to question the children more closely because he was aware of some attitudinal difference between the boys and the girls. He has now decided to do some further research in his school to see what changes need to be made. The head teacher of the second school is about to embark on a complete review of her school technology programme. The results of the research would suggest that concept mapping in the suggested form is a possible tool for evaluation of primary school technology prorammes. However this was only a small case study and further research would have to be done to provide more substantial evidence.     

Insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic challenges for implementing technology education: case studies of Queensland teachers

This study, embedded within the Researching School Change in Technology Education (RSCTE) project in Queensland, Australia, aimed to gain insights into the intrinsic and extrinsic challenges experienced by teachers during the implementation of technology education within primary school settings. The official publication and launch of the Technology years 1–10 syllabus and associated curriculum materials by the Queensland Studies Authority during 2003 saw the first formal Technology curriculum for primary schools in Queensland. The Queensland Government announced that all Queensland schools were to aim for full implementation of this new Key Learning Area (KLA) by 2007. This presented a challenge for Queensland teachers as they began to understand this new KLA and subsequently, were required to implement technology education for the first time. Education Queensland released a number of different strategies that were designed to assist this implementation, including research partnerships with universities. Thus, the RSCTE project, a partnership project between Education Queensland and Griffith University included implementation research within schools. Through the identification of insights into intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, this study, while recognising the limitations of transferability beyond the case studies presented, provides suggestions to assist the implementation of technology education.     

Curriculum restructuring in technology in NSW secondary schools — Response to change

This research project aimed to analyse and clarify the impact of the formation of the Technological and Applied Studies (TAS) Key Learning Area (KLA) on school organisation, teachers and teaching method. It further aimed to examine the implications of this change for pre-service teacher education programs. In 1989 the NSW government White paper on curriculum reform mandated the restructuring of primary and secondary schooling. As a part of this restructuring the subjects that had been traditionally taught under the Home Economics and Industrial Arts departments, together with agriculture and computing studies were brought together under the TAS KLA. The government also mandated that every secondary school student would be required to study technology through a newly developed syllabusDesign and Technology Years 7–10. These changes have had significant implications for the organisation and delivery of technology curriculum in secondary schools and there are consequent implications for the provision of teacher education in the field of technology.Ms. Y. McDonald is currently the program director and practicum co-ordinator of the undergraduate bachelor of education secondary home economics: design, technology and health studies program in the Faculty of Education at Sydney University.Mr. J. Gibson is currently the program director and practicum co-ordinator of the undergraduate bachelor of education secondary industrial arts: design and technology program in the Faculty of Education at Sydney University. He has had extensive experience in curriculum development in the technology area through his membership of syllabus committees and the Technological and Applied Studies Key Learning Area Co-ordinating Committee of the NSW Board of Studies.     

浅析高校师生关系现状及其对教育质量的不利影响

师生关系作为学校生活中最基本、最重要的人际关系,其性质和水平对教育教学活动的效果具有重要作用,对教师和学生的身心发展都会产生深刻的影响。本文分析了高等院校中师生关系的现状,探讨了影响师生关系和谐的因素及目前的师生关系对教育质量的不利影响,指出高校教师只有努力构建和谐师生关系,才能取得良好的教育教学效果。     

Epistemic habits: primary school teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in a design-based research project

Generalist primary school teachers often have little or no training in school subjects such as science and technology. Not surprisingly, several studies show that they often experience difficulties when teaching these subjects, in fact some primary teachers even avoid teaching them. The over all aim of this study is to contribute to new theoretical and methodological tools for the study of how teachers develop knowledge for teaching, i.e. pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). And based on this, elaborate on implications for the professional development of primary school teachers. The teachers in the study participated in a design-based research project concerning technology education in Grade 1. We were especially interested in whether the teachers displayed any habits that contributed to the development of their personal PCK. We found three significant patterns in how the teachers, together with the researcher, developed knowledge of how to teach a specific topic in technology. We argue that these patterns tell us something about the teachers’ epistemic habits in relation to the teaching of technology. The existence of these habits could help to explain how teachers with little or no experience of teaching a subject can develop relevant PCK.     

Dilemmas and opportunities of a new curriculum: Design and technology with Young Children

The article draws on the University of Leeds research project Technological Capability in Young Children. The research objectives were to identify and characterize capability in design and technology for children aged 5–11; to document features of progression in capability within the domains of graphicacy, evaluation skills and the handling of tools and equipment; and to identify and investigate factors which contribute to the development of a technological knowledge base in primary school classrooms. The research perspective relates to previous studies of contextual and developmental features of capability and the development of practical intelligence. Data sources include fieldnotes and video recordings of children working on tasks defined by their teachers as design and technology activities; interviews with the teachers and children about the outcomes of the activities; and contextual data such as availability of materials, resources, use of teacher time, and classroom organization.Analysis of classroom recordings, together with teacher and pupil interviews, revealed a learning environment which presented teachers with new dilemmas and children with opportunities to demonstrate previously unnoted capabilities and deficiencies, particularly in graphicacy, evaluation processes and the manipulation of tools. The findings are exemplified through analysis of critical incidents.     

So What Do Parents Want and Expect from a Technology Education Programme? – An Exploration

Everyone seems to have a view on how and what should be taught in our schools and Technology Education is no exception. In New Zealand, as in the United Kingdom, recent legislation has encouraged parents to take a more active role and to voice their opinions (Banks 1994). Satchwell and Dugger (1996) observe that in the current context of educational reform, parents are questioning what students should be expected to know and be able to do. So what do parents want for their children? This investigation briefly documents a new partnership between a College of Education and a primary school in New Zealand. Parents were questioned over the course of the first year of this new partnership, in order to determine their expectations from the Technology programme.